In this talk, we will explore the journey of scaling DevOpsDays Zürich from a compact, highly engaging event to a large-scale conference hosting 500 attendees. We’ll delve into the challenges encountered, such as increased workload, the need for more sponsors, ticket sales pressures, and the unintended impact on perceived quality. The narrative will then shift to our critical decision-making process, trade-off analysis, and the strategic downscale back to 250 participants. We will share insights on managing community expectations, ensuring event quality, and achieving a balance that honors the core values of DevOpsDays.

Dirk is a DevOps evangelist and Continuous Delivery expert at SAP. Since 2001 Dirk worked in various roles at SAP which mainly revolved around Development and Operations. Together with his former team